Darren Aronofsky Says 'mother!' Was Wrtitten In A Single Weekend

Darren Aronofsky has always been on the radar for cinephiles. This is after all the director that brought us “Requiem For A Dream,” “The Wrestler” and “Black Swan,” three flat-out great movies. Most directors would kill to have just one of these films as part of their filmography.

Aronofsky’s latest film is “mother!” starring Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, Domhnall Gleeson and Michelle Pfeiffer, and all we know is that it’s about “a couple whose relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence.” From what we’ve gathered, Aronofsky wants audience members to know as little about the movie as possible. Talking to Entertainment Weekly for their Fall Movie Preview issue, the writer-director says, “The best thing about this film will be the surprise of it. It’s an intense journey and it’s definitely the biggest roller coaster in the park. Only get on it if you really want to do the loop-the-loop.”

The film was shot on 16mm cameras and, according to Aronofsky, the film’s screenplay was written in a single weekend. “I was always jealous of singer-songwriters who can pop out a song in a couple of days or a few hours. I had this idea, and I felt it rise up in my head,” he said. “I took a long weekend and got into this fever dream and just pumped it out. [Laughs] We’ll see what the results are. It’s been an interesting way to approach it — trying to capture a single emotion and trying to tell a two-hour story out of that emotion.”

That’s ballsy. I cannot remember any other instance where a big-studio screenplay was said to have been written in the span of a few days. It’s quite the risk and I’m sure there was a lot of refining done in the ensuing days and weeks following that weekend, but still, this approach is unusual and, at the same time, absolutely intriguing. Encompassing a spur of the moment emotion into an entire script is a fascinating approach.

Aronofsky also says the new film is “closer to ‘Black Swan’ in spirit than anything I have done in a while.” Perhaps it means lots of surreal psychological depth and feeling, definitely some campiness added into the mix as well as an added dose of erotic intrigue? We’ll all find out on September 15th.